If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Websleuths News

Join Websleuths Radio for the final discussion of THE KILLING SEASON
with Josh Zemam, Rachel Mills and special guests including Bob Kolker author of Lost Girls

WV - Judith Petty, 48, Parkersburg, 6 Feb 2008 - Suspicious Fire

Investigators are attempting to determine if a fire Thursday is related to a missing-person case.

The fire occurred at an abandoned farmhouse on West Virginia 31, said Chief Kim Marshall of Deerwalk Volunteer Fire Department. The property is owned by Marvin Petty, the father of Judith Petty, who went missing Wednesday evening, according to Parkersburg police.

Investigators do not know if the missing woman was inside the structure at the time of the fire. A search produced no results Thursday, but investigators planned to return today to continue sifting through the debris. No one was living in the house at the time of the blaze.

Firefighters from Deerwalk and Waverly Volunteer Fire Department responded to the property around 9:30 a.m., Marshall said. Crews arriving on scene found the structure was destroyed.

“Obviously, the structure was already burned. It was on the ground. Another adjoining building was also burned,” Marshall said.

The property was inaccessible for the majority of the departments’ vehicles. A crew in a four-wheel-drive brush truck approached the residence, but the vehicle had limited water-carrying capacity, Marshall said.

“It was inaccessible. We could only get up there with a four-wheel-drive brush truck that only had a couple of hundred gallons of water on it,” Marshall said.

The structure was unoccupied and was being used for storage, Marshall said.

“We don’t know if she was out there or not. We’re going back out in the morning if we don’t hear from her tonight. We’ll be back out there tomorrow for some more searching,” said Chief Terry Hefner, Waverly VFD.

Judith Petty, 48, of Parkersburg was last seen around 5 p.m. Wednesday when she left her north Parkersburg home to return books to Parkersburg-Wood County Public Library, said Sgt. J.D. Hart of the Parkersburg Police Department. She was last seen around 36th Street and Emerson Avenue, he said.

The missing woman has brown hair, weighs about 250 pounds and is 5 feet 4 inches tall. She has a history of medical problems but does not have a history of running away or becoming lost, Hart said.

Anyone with information on the missing woman should call the police department at (304) 424-8444.

Found?

Fire crews searching a fire scene near Waverly found a human body during a Saturday morning search.

Wood County Coroner Mike St. Clair said the body was found around 11 a.m. Saturday. St. Clair and the firefighters were on the scene until 6 p.m.

“We have determined the remains are human and they have been sent to the medical examiner’s office in Charleston,” he said. “It could take 10 days to a month before they are able to identify the body.”

St. Clair said searchers spent the rest of the day sifting through debris on the scene.

The fire occurred Thursday at an abandoned farmhouse on West Virginia 31 near Waverly. The property is owned by Marvin Petty, the father of Judith Petty, who went missing Wednesday evening, according to Parkersburg police.

Body Identified

WAVERLY — Remains found in a burned-out building have been identified as those of a Parkersburg woman who’s been missing since last week.

Mike St. Clair, Wood County coroner, said Thursday that human remains found Saturday at the residence on West Virginia 31 are those of Judith Petty. Petty, who has a history of medical problems but no history of running away, officials said, disappeared last Wednesday.

The identity of the body was confirmed through dental records by the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office, St. Clair said.

“We were able to obtain her dental records from area dentists who had seen her,” St. Clair said.

Investigators said several bone fragments were found in an outbuilding next to the farmhouse. The outbuilding also was destroyed in the blaze, officials said.

The fire occurred last Thursday at an abandoned farmhouse on West Virginia 31 near Waverly. The property is owned by Marvin Petty, the father of Judith Petty, who went missing Wednesday evening, according to Parkersburg police.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. The investigation is ongoing.

Judith Petty, 48, was last seen around 5 p.m. last Wednesday when she left her north Parkersburg home to return books to the Parkersburg-Wood County Public Library and was observed around 36th Street and Emerson Avenue, police said.

Joan Petty points out she is 77 years old. It's been difficult the past seven years waiting for the murder to be solved, she said. "We're hoping this year is going to be the year for an arrest," she said.

The family believes it knows who committed the crime, said Marvin Petty. "It's being able to prove it." A full-time cold-case investigator is needed in Wood County, a detective who will only work on such cases, Marvin Petty said...

But it's not easy and is still painful, Joan Petty said. She pointed out Judith Petty's remains were mistakenly released by the medical examiner to the wrong family and buried in Jackson County. "It's hard to explain. Until somebody has been through it..." Joan Petty, her voice trailing off, said.

Tips have come to a halt making no progress in the investigation. The Wood County Sheriff's Office says this isn't a cold case and they need more information to make an arrest.

"We've had information that's focused us on an individual, don't know if we could say he's a bonafide suspect at this point. We are going to need a lot more information to link him to it and be able to move forward," says Captain Mark King, Wood County Sheriff's Office.

"This is the eighth year, and as long as any of us are still a live, we're going to keep it out there, try to keep it out there because we feel we want justice for Judy," says Judy's mother, Joan Petty.